UNITED NATIONS, May 24: Following are highlights of the US-British drafted UN Security Council resolution on an interim Iraqi government and a multinational force.
- The United Nations would endorse the formation of a "sovereign interim government of Iraq" that takes office by June 30. This government is being selected by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, in consultation with US officials.
- It would help organize a national conference that would select a consultative council to aid the new government and help organize elections, among other tasks.
- Direct elections would be held no later than Jan. 31, 2005, for a transitional national assembly, which would draft a permanent constitution.
- The resolution would reaffirm authorization of a US-led multinational force that would have the authority to take "all necessary measures" to maintain peace and security.
- The mandate for the force would be reviewed but not terminated after a year, unless council members wanted that.
- The US military command, Iraqi forces and the Iraqi government would make arrangements to enhance coordination but the text does not say Iraqi troops can refuse a US order.
- The resolution foresees a separate force within the overall command to provide security for UN staff.
- A fund for oil and gas revenues, now controlled by the occupiers, would be handed over to Iraq. But an international advisory board would stay in place for a year to assure investors and donors expenditures were free of corruption.
- The resolution would curtail an existing UN arms embargo on Iraq by allowing importation of weapons by either the multinational force or the Iraqi government.
- It would ask UN members and international security organizations, such as NATO, to join the multinational force and provide aid to Iraq.
- It would ask all nations to crack down on the flow of funds and other resources to any groups or individuals that might carry out terrorist attacks in Iraq.
- The resolution is silent on the future of prisons that are ruin by foreign forces and on the interim constitution adopted earlier this year. -Reuters